An Ethical Framework for Emerging Technologies

The inherent nature of uncertainty and the indefinite time horizon of emerging technologies means that their effective ethical governance is not sufficiently addressed by industry and hence society. This paper explores an approach to enhance existing ethical frameworks that can be useful and relevant to new and emerging technologies. We begin with the analysis of literature exploring some of the technical features of each framework and its potential applicability to emerging technologies. Following this, a detailed outline of a broad ethical framework has been proposed using a combination of existing ethical frameworks, namely Anticipatory Technology Ethics plus (ATE+), Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA) and a Futures Studies approach, including empirical insights and stakeholder consultation from an EC funded project called TechEthos. The results of the synthesis of the existing ethical frameworks have led to the development of an enhanced framework called ‘TEAeM’ (TechEthos Anticipatory Ethics Model), which builds on existing tools (rather than replace them) to support the ethical considerations of new and emerging technologies. The usefulness of this framework extends across industry, researchers and policy makers.